Alcohol limit

Dolby

Dolby

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A few weeks ago I went out, had 4x single Jamerson and a jaegermeister over about 4 hours and was stopped on the way home. I felt perfect and imagined that I was over limit - but not by much.

Anyhow - blew in and received a reading of .25 - 4 x higher than the limit of .5. I accepted it as true and but people have since told me it sounds high. The cop was corrupt and only after a bribe.

Does that sound high? I've always thought at 4 x you're pretty sloshed ...
 
Yeah that is a bit high, contrary to popular belief, your weight and physique, doesn't influence your liver's ability to process the alcohol by much, in the sense that a seasoned alcoholic will still be fine, compared to someone who doesn't drink at all - with the same amount of alcohol, so while you might feel fine, and someone who is thin as a rake, might be on his back with the same amount of alcohol, it comes down to many factors that can be either advantageous or disadvantageous to you . "The legal blood alcohol limit in South Africa is 0.05g per 100ml of blood".

"one’s actual blood alcohol level can be higher than expected and is influenced by many factors, including the type of alcoholic beverage, time of one’s last meal, the speed at which one drinks, one’s age, sex, fitness level, type of build, the use of medication, presence of illnesses, state of the liver, etc"

"This means that one person’s blood alcohol levels could actually be higher than someone else's even after consuming the same volume of alcohol. Remember that alcohol takes time to be removed from the blood stream and body " - at the set rate of 0.05g/100ml an hour.

So, with a reading of 0.25, your "drunkenness stage" is 'Excitement'

Emotional instability; loss of critical judgment
Impairment of perception, memory and comprehension
Decreased sensatory response; increased reaction time
Reduced visual acuity; peripheral vision and glare recovery
Sensory-motor incoordination; impaired balance
Drowsiness

Your next stage if you continued drinking, was going to be: 'Confusion'

Disorientation, mental confusion; dizziness
Exaggerated emotional states
Disturbances of vision and of perception of color, form, motion and dimensions
Increased pain threshold
Increased muscular incoordination; staggering gait; slurred speech
Apathy, lethargy



Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol | http://www.health24.com/tools/bloodalcohol/start.asp | http://www.health24.com/news/Addiction_Substance_abuse/1-887,34039.asp | http://www.forcon.ca/learning/alcohol.html | http://www.intox.com/about_alcohol.asp |http://www.intox.com/physiology.asp | and my Criminology books....
 
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All I know is anything more than two beers and you're more than likely over the limit.
 
I was always under the impression that 2 units = limit of 0.05, therefore 0.025 per unit. But also that your body removes about a unit per hour. I would've guessed after 5 units over 4 hours that you would be close to the limit. 0.25 (or five times the limit) seems very dodgy to me... That means 10 units + no alcohol was metabolised? Sure it wasn't doubles? Or a joint with it? :whistle::D
 
I have a breathalyser and quite often when we drink we play around with it to see where we are.
What we have found is even after one drink for the next 15 - 20 minutes you are going to read "very drunk" when you blow, cause its all on your breath still.
Now i have two friends, one is 6"4 and about 80kgs, im 6 foot and about 80kg, my other is about 5"9 and 90+kg, my GF is 50k. My heaviest friend will always record at least double what me and my tall friend read, my GF hits about 4 times the limit for each drink she has, i've had 2 vodka cokes + 2 jagerbombs an hour for about 4 hours straight, sack back for 30 minutes, drank a coffee and just been on the limit.

So there's nothing even close between our results, so who knows with you!
 
4 Jamies already put you way way over the legal limit.
 
Bear in mind that the BLOOD alcohol limit is 0.05 (i.e. measured in a blood test). The breathalyser reading limits are different.
 
Thanks kwagga,

Cantera - it would, but I thought with the timing (4 hours) and the fact that everyone is telling me it sounded too, it may be incorrect.

I do feel bad for giving money, Smooth. In retrospect what I'll do is tell him that it sounds wrong, ask him to lock me up for a the long weekend and then spend thousands of Rands and many hours from my job trying to prove he was indeed incorrect.
 
Dolby said:
In retrospect what I'll do is tell him that it sounds wrong, ask him to lock me up for a the long weekend and then spend thousands of Rands and many hours from my job trying to prove he was indeed incorrect.
Click to expand...

And save for some ARV drugs...
 
Scary. I also usually guesstimate when I'm below the limit.

How were the drinks spaced over the 4h?

Claymore said:
Bear in mind that the BLOOD alcohol limit is 0.05 (i.e. measured in a blood test). The breathalyser reading limits are different.
Click to expand...
Surely the breathalyser is calibrated to at least approximate blood level?
 
Closer together when I arrived ... so probably 3 within the 2 hours and the last sipped in the next two hours.
 
I assume the OP meant 4x over the limit of .05 not .5... (which is 5x exactly)
Assuming the OP is still under the influence of course:)
 
Apologies - I meant 0.05 legal and I was at 0.25 :)
 
I'm about 75kg, in my early 30s, exctomorphish, but with somewhat of a beergut. And not moderately unfit. I drink about 2/3 drinks (brandy and coke) every evening. So I would think that my tolerance could be high.

What would be your estimates if I had say 3 glasses of redwine or 3 beers?
 
I have a Japanese buddy who lacks the enzyme to process alcohol...

In the beginning of the night he's all turning down drinks and explaining his situation in his incredibly thick accent... however, the man is unreasonably good looking and once hot women have moaned at him until he takes a shot (no hot girls seem ever to have heard of this particular condition) then proceeded to cheer and egg him on the dude is hitting Jaegers like no ones business and pretty soon it's kind of indistinguishable from an episode of Jackass.

I have had to physically carry him to the car on several occasions and his hangovers, to the observer at least look downright apocalyptic.

The ability to process alcohol is directly related to how your breathalyzer results come out and it is very different for many people due to several different factors.
 
I'm a small dude +60kg's and fit. finished about 2/3 of a bottle of brandy. Few hours later took a manual breath-alyser not the digital ones and it gave me an orange... who knows what that means but RED is over the limit so orange must mean close to the limit i guess. But still i felt fine and the test showed i'm fine I would have expected to be WAY WAY over judging from the amount of booze. Had lots to eat and drink during the day though and it was a relaxed session. Still i didn't even consider driving. ppl need to draw the line you're not a child who doesn't know any better...
 
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Just remember the way you feel after drinking has nothing to do with the amount of alcohol in the blood. People who are used to drinking will have a higher tolerance for the alcohol but the blood alcohol content will be the same as another bloke who never drinks and is *******s after drinking the same no of drinks as you did.
 
A breathalyser reads different and the legal limits for a breathalyzer are different as well.

Blood alcohol is 0.05mg per 100ml if measured via a blood test.
Breatheralyser 0.24mg per 1000ml. So you were ever so SLIGHTLY over the limit, but over the limit none-the-less.

I've had a cop try that one on a friend of mine. We'd all be out drinking but this guy had 2 drinks and then stopped. He blew 0.1 and the cop was getting ready to try arrest him and the cop got VERY upset with me when I politely told him that the driver is way under the legal limit and the cop can now leave and go find some real criminals.
 
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